Science gives us a hand in sorting out devilish differences in left and right

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Charles Darwin considered the question: Are monkeys left or right-handed?Ian Turner/PA

Rhoda Buchanan

Published at 12:01AM, May 5 2012

The Devil is greeted with the left hand, ghosts lurk over the left shoulder and an itchy left foot means your journey will end in sorrow.

You may be excused for thinking that modern science has steered us away from assigning such significance to differences between left and right. But research to be presented in Aberdeen next week will show that left and right-handedness are not only at the very centre of biology but of the building blocks of the universe.

A sea-shell is right-handed, umbilical cords are thought to be left-handed, hops are left-handed but twine reed is often